On Society by Anthony Elliott, Bryan S. Turner - 9780745648422

On SocietyAuthor(s): Anthony Elliott, Bryan S. Turner\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Polity Press\nISBN-13: 9780745648422, 978-0745648422\nSynopsis\nSociety' is one of the most frequently used words in public life; it is also a foundational term in the social sciences. In our own time, however, the idea has never been so much in dispute and so little understood. For some critics, society is simply too consensual for a world of intensive discord. For others, the idea of society' is oppressive - the very notion, so some argue, is dismissive of the infinite social differences that shape global realities. In this erudite and original book, two of the world's leading social theorists focus on unravelling the different meanings of society as a way of introducing the reader to contemporary debates in social theory. The authors argue provocatively that all ideas of society can be assigned to one of three analytical categories, or some combin.